In New Mexico I experienced what it is like to crawl deep into Carlsbad Cavern, one of America's largest caves, where I was consumed by the eerie silence and darkness of the underworld. Next stop was the cultural shock of using real bathrooms and having modern surroundings in Albuquerque where my sister lives. We spent a few weeks visiting with my sister and brother, before offroading across the desert and along the western coast of Baja.

Photo by Heather Ericson Two Canadian bicyclists, Joel, 23 and Derek Gytenbeek, 21 are biking all over North and Central America. We met them on the road, Christmas 2008 in Baja.

As family at home unwrapped presents by the Christmas tree, with a winter wonderland outside the window, I spent Christmas night sitting by a fire with some young bicyclists, swapping stories of our journey. Through the smoke of the campfire, I heard tales of how Joel, 23, and Derek Gytenbeek, 21, biked from Vancouver, B.C., down to this beach. After Baja, they planned to ship the bikes to mainland Mexico, and then bike to the Yucatan Peninsula, up the East Coast of the United States, and eventually home after a year and a half. Their main motivation is to get a better education than school itself can give you and to break free from everything they have.

People traveling seem to be the friendliest and the happiest people you will ever meet. Some have to conquer hardships, while others smoothly sail by. The world is a small place and you never know who you may bump into.

We ran into some sailing friends of ours from Homer -- Hal Smith, Susan McLane and the Velasco family -- in the harbor in La Paz.

Farther from the wind, Cabo Pumo National Park is filled with sea life and exquisite reefs, set in a tropical paradise. My mom and I took a snorkel boat out on the reef, where they dropped us off at a sea lion colony and we snorkeled with the beautiful large mammals.

Diving down to get a better look, the sea lions spin, parting the millions of little fish, displaying that the ocean indeed is light turquoise and the bottom is sandy unlike the dark it portrayed. Back in the boat, we spot a family of humpback whales.All of a sudden one of the large humpbacks breeches out of the water 50 feet in front of us, displaying its massive size as well as every barnacle.

As I finish my article, the humpback whales continue to breech as the sun sets over the Sea of Cortez. I look back and hope to visit Baja sometime soon.

Keep an eye out for my next tale. I'm headed to the exotic land of China.Until then, keep traveling as the people you meet are worth the trip.

Homer High School Grad Heather Ericson continues her studies while incorporating travel into her life. She is headed back to Nanjing University to resume her studies in Chinese. For the past few months, she traveled from Alaska to Baja in an Isuzu Trooper with her parents.